Stained Glass Storybook
by Dubious Dick
Summary: Rainbow Dash has been invited by Zecora to see a different world. However, Rainbow Dash is unprepared for what she is about to see, that will change her way of thinking forever. Rated T for mature themes of child abuse and nuclear catastrophe.


**Stained Glass Storybook**

* * *

**Just to be clear, I am really not happy with the way this turned out. I rushed it, but still can't bring myself to redo it.**

* * *

**I'm flying, soaring** above a unique palette of greens and browns, the soft sun drenching my back in its golden beams. I love my world almost as much as I love flying, which I am undoubtedly awesome at. I'm like a bullet, fighting against the wind, piercing the air and pushing on through. I dart between the thick trees of the forest, like a predator stalking his grounded prey. It's hard to imagine a life without this kind of freedom. I beat my wings significantly softer as I see my destination below me, a wooden hut with a chimney gushing thick purple and black smoke. I land perfectly, squaring my feet, about two meters from the front door. I go to knock, but the door is quickly opened by a familiar zebra before I have time to act. She smiles at me, with a welcoming shine in her eyes. With a soothing, deep voice, she begins to speak.  
'If it isn't dearest Rainbow Dash,  
Whose movements are as fast  
As her actions are rash.  
A new perspective, offered to you,  
A new horizon, of which you can choose.' Her accent is thick, and her rhymes are dynamic, and seem to spill out of a brilliant pot of poems held within her mind. I hold my head high and begin to speak.  
'Yeah, It's me, the one and only! Can I really see into other worlds with this potion-y thing?' I move my face in close to hers, ready to hold tight onto each of her rhythmic words.  
'Yes, my dear. I confess, it's true.  
An outlandish world can be seen by you.  
But beware what you see just might not sooth.  
A story be told. These tales are blue.  
To my warning, I beg of you to take heed.  
A strength of mind, and willpower you'll need.' She's not making any sense to me, but she seems to be warning me that I might be unnerved by what I'm going to see. I reply, letting her know just how confident I am.  
'Don't worry about me, Zecora. I'll be fine.'  
She smiles, and hands me a bowl of a strange soup-like substance. I start to drink it, as Zecora continues to speak,  
'Well with this, I say we get started.  
A few seconds now, and you'll have departed.'  
The world  
fades  
to  
black..

* * *

**I open my eyes.** I'm looking through some sort of window, and Zecora is stood next to me. We are stood in a black void, so black that it swallows my confidence with its unending darkness. I panic a little bit, and call out to Zecora.  
'Hey, where are we? What IS this place?' She smiles her usual smile, making me feel better inside again.  
'Look through the window, and you will see.  
The events of a world your eyes are yet to see.' Following her instructions, I focus on peering through the thick glass of the window. I can see shapes, but they are blurred. I look for a few more seconds. They are now coming into focus, and appear to be the inside of a room. The room seems bleak, and is cluttered with assorted boxes, a bed and a weird rectangle shaped object with a black, shiny glass square on the front. After a good thirty seconds of no movement, a creature enters the room. It's not an animal I've ever seen before. He seems to sit down on the bed, which is about twice the size of the creature. He places his hooves to his face. But, they are not hooves, but instead thin shovel shaped appendages with small tentacle-like things spouting from them; five on each arm. I can't hear him, but he appears to be crying. I want to ask him why, but I'm powerless to do anything but watch, as the poor creature wraps itself up in its own sadness and anxiety. Suddenly, a similar creature enters the room, but is much larger and has his mane growing from his chin. He reaches down to his waste with his shovel things, and appears to peel off a black ring off skin from around his waist. The larger creature now appears to be yelling, its face red, and it holds the black skin outward like a baseball bat. The smaller creature draws its head from its appendages, and looks the larger creature in the eye, and seems to be either protesting or yelling back. I don't know why, but the larger creature started to whip the smaller one with the black skin. It's horrible to see, and I don't understand what would drive somepony to do something like that, no matter how angry. Especially considering how much smaller the little one was. The scene begins to replay, faster this time, and the small one appears to have grown a fraction larger. It replays another dozen times, as I watch, mesmerized by this display of pure unwarranted brutality. Each time, the small one grows larger, until it is about three quarters of the height of the larger creature. The scene replays as normal, until the large one goes to strike. The smaller one appears to roar, before charging into the other, and bringing a clenched appendage to its face. The small one is crying more heavily than any of the other times I've seen it. He then runs, out of the room and out of sight. The large one writhes on the floor in pain, face red with pure anger. I turn to Zecora, who is no longer smiling. I have to ask her, so I do.  
'Why did that happen? Why did it end up like that? Why were they hurting each oth-' she cut me short, her voice now lined with concern.  
'Rainbow Dash, for your mental wellbeing I am worried.  
I feel that this process may too soon have been hurried.' My heart is racing, my head full of wonder and fear simultaneously. I manage to omit two words.  
'K..Keep Going.'  
I needed to know why this universe I was looking into was so screwed up. I look back into the glass, expecting the worst. A scene comes into focus. It appears to be from the point of view of another of the creatures. It was flying, but seemed to have a cone shaped cage around it. It moves its weird hoof thing from the stick it had been wrapped around to a small metal object, which it presses in. A red light flashes at the top of the creature's view, and everything shakes once or twice, like it dropped a big object. The creature focuses on a small mirror, showing what appears to be a city. In an instant, the city erupts into red-orange fire, which rises high into the air, making a mushroom shape. The scene blurs and fades out. Again, I turn to Zecora.  
'Was that-' She cuts me off before I can finish,  
'An explosion of flame? Yes, I'm afraid so.  
A city consumed, one bomb too many blown.  
An act of war alien to our kind.  
Your job it will be to keep this out of line.'  
'What do you mean my job?'  
'I'm afraid my dearest Rainbow,  
the next generation needs to be controlled,  
to stop us spilling blood like these crazy imbeciles.  
We are more than that, we are friendly and civilized.  
Your job it will be,  
To keep the young young and free,  
And to spread the word of tolerance and peace.  
Alone, I am but a lowly zebra.  
But with you talking peace, we'll keep it forever!'  
'So you needed to show me these things because to understand how much we need to keep our world how it is, by showing me what it could become...'  
'I am sorry for showing you these scenes of such cruelty.  
But now you can uphold a royal duty.'  
'I understand.'  
The dark world is beginning to slip away from me, and I open my eyes again to find myself back in Zecora's hut, with the zebra smiling down at me. I am so happy to see her smiling again. I shake her hoof, and we stare at each other intently, knowing nothing else needs to be said for now. I smile back, and exit the hut slowly. I stretch my wings out, and with a whoosh, I take to the skies. I was ready to tell the world of my newfound live of peace, and I embrace my freedom by soaring through the air.  
Flying, soaring.


End file.
